The Hogeye 2019

Big long thing number 18 for calendar year 2019 at the Hogeye Marathon in Springdale, Arkansas. The current iteration of the course is rolling hills through a small downtown, tree lined suburban streets, a quick stop through the Double-A ball park, and a significant amount of asphalt bicycle paths around the local parks system. What the course admittedly lacked in charm I felt it made up for in spades with a tremendous amount of community support. Maybe it was just because I felt like I was unwanted in Pennsylvania, but these volunteers weren’t just there, they had tremendous enthusiasm, and that makes all the difference. I think this is my new favorite Arkansas race. A bit of inside baseball: if you’re unfamiliar with this portion of Arkansas, Hogeye is an unincorporated area outside of Fayetteville where this race originally finished. It has now been moved to Springdale without a name change, but I expect sooner or later it will be called the Arkansas marathon presented by Tyson foods or somesuch thing because it seems clear that the Tyson people have put their name on everything in town. Fun fact: Springdale was originally known as Shiloh, but discovered at the time of its post office registration there was another Shiloh in Arkansas. It was instead named after the number of springs found in the area.

They even took out a billboard welcoming everyone

This is sadly relatively humane by comparison to what we actually do to chickens

The local ballpark where the Northwest Naturals, the local KC Royals Double A team, play.

I made a friend…

The shirt is certainly loud…

PLAY “FREE BIRD”

For some reason Angela wanted me in the picture, and you don’t mess with Texans

Ken and Maria paced the 5:00 group. I’ve probably seen Ken at 20 marathons or more, but this might be the first time I’ve seen him in his home state.

Great to share a few miles with Georges and Johnathan

One of the springs in the dale

The bib gods were hinting at the half

Start line

The elder statesmen. A rare chance for me to spend some time with Henry Rueden. We chatted about everything from chocolates, siteseeing, Iraq, and the Great Lakes Challenge

Finisher swag includes medal, post race beverage (I did not see beer, but have taken to chocolate milk lately), a pig nose (which I will use for this or the pig), a pullover (modeled by Sir Not Appearing in this Film), and most importantly a banana. There was also Tyson chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, or packaged PB&J for the vegetarians. UPDATE: There were socks for the pacers as well. This is a very swag heavy race.

Truth in advertising

Hipster ice cream. Spiced red wine sorbet. Yum

Shelly Jones-mack your lovely daughter was kind enough to lie to me and tell me I didn’t look like as much of a train wreck as Savannah